Mary Ellen Trainor, who starred in the Lethal Weapon movies, as well as The Goonies and films by her ex-husband Robert Zemeckis, has died. She was 62.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, a longtime friend of Trainor’s, confirmed to the The Associated Press that she died on May 20 at her Montecito, California home.
Trainor got started in the film business as a producer’s assistant, working on several films, including Steven Spielberg’s 1941, which was written by Zemeckis. The two married in 1980 and she made her acting debut in Romancing The Stone (1984). As The Hollywood Reporter notes, other Zemeckis films she appeared in include Back To The Future Part II, Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump.
She starred as Dr. Stephanie Woods in all four Lethal Weapon movies and worked with director Richard Donner on The Goonies and Scrooged. Her other credits include Die Hard, Ghostbusters II, Little Giants, Moonlight Mile and the 2003 Freaky Friday remake. She also appeared on TV in ABC’s Relativity and UPN/WB’s Roswell.
Zemeckis and Trainor, who was known by friends as Mare, divorced in 2000. They had one child, Alex Zemeckis.
“Mare and I have been close since our days together as college roommates, and she even provided the introduction to Steven Spielberg that jumpstarted my career,” Kennedy said in a statement to the AP. “She was a great actress, warm friend and generous spirit.”
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